


Ceaseless

by wouldirunoff



Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, FrostIron - Freeform, Gratuitous Great Gatsby references, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:24:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wouldirunoff/pseuds/wouldirunoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony just wants to see that spark.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Or, Tony wakes up after having passed out on the floor of his mother's old library, and he needs Loki to react.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ceaseless

Rolling onto his knees, Tony grasps a nearby shelf to help support his weight as he levers himself to standing with a soft groan. His fingers brush against a well-worn book. _The Great Gatsby. Never understood why she always read—_ He watches dust particles float placidly in a sunbeam and absorbs the scent of hundreds of old books in one place. _Always forget that slight spice to it._ He closes his eyes as he rolls his shoulders to loosen the muscles drawn tight from a night spent passed out on hardwood flooring. Letting out a slow breath and cracking open dry eyes stinging with sudden hydration, he turns and walks through the rows of bookshelves by rote. _Why I never come to the mansion. Too old for this. Tower in shambles. Didn’t have a choice—_ He pauses and wipes the dust from a hand he hadn’t realized was trailing along the spines of the books onto his jeans. _Was that a page turning? Team doesn’t come in here. Noticed this door didn’t make it on the Grand Tour even though I showed them every linen closet just to see when Clint would lose his patience. They understand. We’ve all got—there it is again. Soft rustle of paper. Who?_ He moves forward again, taking care to soften his footsteps, paranoid that even the soft tap of his bare feet would give him away.

He stops where a row ends into a central aisle and peers around the shelves into the main sitting area. _Of course it’s him. Loki. None of the rest would set foot in a library, anyway. Even Bruce does all his reading electronically._ A pale, narrow finger absentmindedly strokes the cover of a book where it rests in elegant hands. _Didn’t deign to do the tour with the rest of them. Doesn’t do anything with them anyway, other than fight, since he came back from whatever Odin did to him._ Loki turns another page and takes a moment to smooth back a few strands of hair that had fallen forward. _Repaying his debt to Earth with community service now that he’s on parole. More complicated than that. Didn’t listen to the debriefing. Avoid him anyway, expression in his eyes looks too familiar._ One long leg bends as Loki shifts to rest an ankle on his right knee and settles the book along his calf, a corner pressing into his thigh, his right hand still holding onto the book. His free hand twists gracefully in the air near his head as he places his elbow on the armrest.

 - _A single green light.-_  


Tony watches, transfixed, as the minute ball of magical energy winds itself through curling digits. With no warning from his expression, Loki extinguishes the light and snaps the book closed simultaneously. Both men freeze when Loki stands to return the book to its proper place, their gazes aligned. Tony had forgotten his intentions of stealth as he contemplated Loki’s magic and now stands exposed in the aisle having unconsciously moved to a better vantage point. He felt the other man’s scrutiny run the length of his body and take in all the obvious evidence of his night. _Red eyes. Rumpled clothes. Disastrous hair. Hunched stance. Probably couldn’t lie to him anyway._

“Stark. I did not expect you here.”

“Yeah, well, it is my house.”

\- _I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.-_  


“This room seems seldom used.” Standing has placed Loki in the glow of the sun through a window. Dust moves in lazy circles around his head.

“No one comes in here.” _Anymore._

Loki hesitates. Tony doesn’t like it. He can see the realization of an overstepped bound in the tension betraying itself through the line appearing between Loki’s eyebrows. _Always so careful now. God of fire with no flames. What did Odin do to—_

“I will return this book to its shelf.” _Slow measured steps toward me. Tentative. Me after sand and a cave and death and betrayal. Couldn’t read people. God of lies with no charisma._ Tony’s hand grabs Loki’s arm under its own prerogative. Startled green eyes flash to Tony’s brown.

- _You always have a green light that burns_ -

“Stark. What are you doing?” _Ah, there’s a spark._ Hands still moving of their own volition move to grip shoulders clad in soft cotton. Tony pushes Loki up against the flat end of a bookshelf. _Well-crafted oak. Sturdy. Heavy. Won’t fall easily._ When there’s no resistance to his manhandling, Tony pulls Loki forward and shoves him back again. The book Loki’s holding falls to the floor. No arms move to stop him. _React, damn it._ Loki looks down at him calculatingly, but he still doesn’t move.

  
_-glaring tragically into my eyes_.-

_Why am I doing this?_

Lips slam forcefully against lips. The sound of clacking teeth seems to ring through the room as hands slide from shoulders to cradle cheeks.

“Move," more formed against another mouth than said. “Do something.” Hands grip hair and tug just on the wrong side of painful.

_-He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps-_

A strangled noise fights its way from a pale throat; a tongue moves to breach and battle as arms curve around Tony’s back and bring their bodies flush together. Heat coils and curls in his lower belly, and Tony loses the thin thread of understanding he’s been clutching desperately. He loses himself in heat and soft sounds issued in hums and muffled moans.

The body against his begins to shake. _Always separate. When was the last time you were touched without malice?_ Tony pulls away and looks into fierce green eyes daring him to mock him for this apparent weakness.

“There you are.”

Loki shifts uneasily, suddenly uncomfortable. _He doesn’t understand what you mean._ His whole face transforms when he notices Tony’s full-body shiver as the movement brushes them together, wicked smirk spreading across his lips.

Their bodies meld together again in the empty room; both trying to shred the noose of memory on the jagged edges of each other.

* * *

 

_-So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.-_

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how or why this happened, but it did.


End file.
